On the plane, Araari brings up being incompetently threatened. “Two men stopped me yesterday. From Captain Walker. They wanted me to tell you that continuing on this path is dangerous. —They meant because of them, because they will hurt you if you continue, but I suspect they are not the most dangerous thing we will encounter if we continue.”
" - huh. I thought you guys were, you know, in the business of being concerned about hospitals shooting people up with real bad stuff? Not that I know the first thing about what we'd do about it. Need to know more for that, I think."
"If you think that we can expose them with--consequences--I think everyone here would be in favor of that."
"The Times of Malta is in English but we'd need significantly more proof than we have that the experimental drug is doing what we say it does. It's a better plan than none."
"Okay, so... probably some of us should go to the hospital and try to learn more about what the nurses think they're doing and why they're doing it, maybe look into that Dr. Solazzio? And some of us should try to, I don't know, see if they can contrive to run into Montgomery Donovan at a social event or whatever she does with her life. And just... generally keep a low profile, avoid pissing anyone off, and get ourselves as close as we can to whatever's going on, until we have hard proof of something damning?"
"In the very near term I'm hoping to find out what Inaaya being psychic actually cashes out to."
"That sounds like it would be very good to know. In case it's 'she knows all our secrets and is completely onto us.'"
"I wonder if the warding stone affects her?"
They divide up and begin their research for today.
Magnificence is going to TAKE PICTURES. He may need someone to direct him to the correct location first but then he is going to TAKE PICTURES.
Magnificence shall OBSERVE THE WAREHOUSE.
WHAT is the purpose of this location.
It DOES contain people.
The warehouse is a simple cement-and-corrugated-metal building with few entrances and high, closed windows. Aside from the light pouring out through those dirty windows, there’s little way of seeing what’s happening inside.
There are MEN WITH GUNS walking around the outside.
They are watching to make sure people don't enter the building.
There's a big gravel area nearby, with some cars on it.
Are there places where a monkey might SNEAK BY without the men with guns noticing. Possibly from somewhere they would not expect. Like the roof, if it's possible to climb up to the roof from anywhere else.
AHA. He will TRY THIS and then see whether there are any ways INSIDE that might not be IMMEDIATELY OBVIOUS from other vantage points.
He cuts across the gravel yard because it is LESS LIKELY TO BE SEEN BY MEN WITH GUNS, who are very carefully only walking on the paths.
As he crosses, he feels something grabbing at his foot. He sees that he's knocked aside some gravel and disturbed a mouth, flecked with dirt. It looks almost human, almost normal.
WHAT IS THAT. THAT'S NOT HOW MOUTHS GO.
okay okay this is a WEIRD THING. when he runs into weird things he should take a PICTURE.
he will TAKE A PICTURE OF THE MOUTH.
He clumsily drops his camera into the mouth. It chomps it and then, apparently unhappy about the taste of this meal, SCREAMS
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Magnificence RUNS VERY FAST
(no no no the camera the camera that anemone got him)
everything is TERRIBLE the mouth ATE HIS CAMERA
AWFUL